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Missa Mater Christi sanctissima

Introduction

The motet Mater Christi sanctissima survives in the ‘Peterhouse’ partbooks. this set of partbooks is missing its tenor book (the second part up from the bass), although Mater Christi sanctissima is also contained in the ‘Sadler’ partbooks, which date from half a century later. So the piece survives intact, albeit not entirely contemporaneously. The same cannot be said for the Mass setting that Taverner based on the motet, since Missa Mater Christi sanctissima only survives in the ‘Peterhouse’ source. Francis Steele’s thrillingly competent reconstruction of the missing voice part of the Mass has been used for this recording, and the reliability of Steele’s edition is aided and abetted by the fact that the first part up from the bottom of the texture is the easiest part of the five to reconstruct, since its spacing above the bass line is acoustically straitjacketed when the other four parts are known. Moreover, since the Mass is modelled on the music of the motet, there are many sections where the music of the motet’s tenor part can be transferred directly from the model to the parody. What you hear on this recording is therefore as close to the original score as you could hope to get, at least until new sources are uncovered or new computational analytical techniques are developed.

Missa Mater Christi sanctissima—like most English cyclic Mass settings of the period—lacks a polyphonic Kyrie. The athletic opening of the Gloria brazenly references the Mass’s model, but bends the liltingly Marian figuration to its own ends. It is fascinating to observe how, in Taverner’s hands, a musical passage can transmit different meanings in different contexts. That isn’t the case with all composers of the period, and it takes a master craftsman like Taverner to reuse and re-stitch old material into a flattering new outfit. It is the fluency with which Taverner transforms his own music in a logically through-composed manner that is so impressive. And then, just as impressively, Taverner responds to the moment (for instance, ‘Jesu Christe’) by setting specific words in an arresting way: demonstrate special reverence here, the music says to the worshipper. Although the musical style of the Mass is predominantly expansive, the text is clearly audible in the decorated sections for a few well-considered reasons. First, the close imitation at the beginning of phrases helps to reinforce textual audibility. Secondly, melismas are reserved for the penultimate syllable of a phrase, by which time the final syllable’s identity is understood. Thirdly, the text of the Latin Mass would anyway have been thoroughly familiar to anyone hearing this music in Cardinal College in the late 1520s. On its second appearance in the Gloria, the name of Jesus is again given special chordal treatment, whereas this time the epithet ‘Christ’ is treated more expansively than before. And the ‘Amen’ at the end of the movement, though relatively brief, is one of the most ecstatic climaxes of any Mass movement of the early Tudor period. The use of the head-motif at the opening of the Credo engenders not so much the idea of motivic recycling, but rather it focuses the musical endeavour on the liturgical importance of the words of the Creed. It is Taverner’s strength that he simultaneously gives the impression of effortlessly spinning notes while taking care to lend emphasis to those aspects of the text that he deems appropriate—chordal treatment here, gentle imitation there; high voices here, a breathtaking musical arch there; insistent imitation here, low voices there; and so on. The view through Taverner’s musico-theological kaleidoscope is infinitely patterned and colourful. Missa Mater Christi sanctissima is thoroughly logical in the progression of its musical argument, and it means that the piece makes aural sense as a large-scale structure even when taken out of its liturgical context. Indeed, certain aspects of the composer’s genius become even more apparent when you divorce them from the liturgical action. And on a purely technical level, Taverner’s two- and three-voice writing is outstanding in this Mass. Indeed, there is more contrapuntal fluidity here than in Taverner’s more famous Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas. The metre is firmly simple-duple throughout but with two exceptions—the compound-duple ‘Osanna’ to the Benedictus and the third ‘Agnus Dei’ that ends the Mass. That the self-evident ebullience transmitted by the words ‘Hosanna in the highest’ should be musically matched by the closing words of the Mass (‘grant us peace’) might seem contradictory to twenty-first-century sensibilities, yet clearly the early sixteenth-century Northern European view of peace was more vivacious than that of today.

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Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise you. We bless you. We adore you. We glorify you. We give you thanks for your great glory. Lord God, king of heaven, God the Father almighty, Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father.

You who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you who take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you only are holy. You only are Lord. You only are most high, Jesus Christ. With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise you. We bless you. We adore you. We glorify you. We give you thanks for your great glory. Lord God, king of heaven, God the Father almighty, Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, Lord God, lamb of God, Son of the Father, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; you who take away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; you who sit at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For you only are holy. You only are Lord. You only are most high, Jesus Christ. With the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

I believe in one God, Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all visible and invisible things. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten son of God, eternally begotten of the Father. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. Begotten, not made, of one being with the Father, through him all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven.

And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary, and was made man. He was also crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, he died and was buried. And on the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. And ascended into heaven: he sits at the right hand of the Father. He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom shall have no end.

And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

I believe in one God, Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all visible and invisible things. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten son of God, born of the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven. And was incarnate by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary, and was made man. He was also crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, he died and was buried. And on the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. And ascended into heaven: he sits at the right hand of the Father. And he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead: there will be no end to his kingdom. And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.